Patterns and Conditioning

[Mako Crab]

I've been thinking about this a while. The way people in the TF fandom have been conditioned to think about the story and characters of Transformers.

With Transformers the pattern has always been simple: Good vs. Evil in a war that never ends.

Having reinforced that pattern for the better part of 3 decades, I can't help but wonder if the fandom in general has had these patterns ingrained in their minds to the point of snuffing out imagination and creativity.

For example- any time you see someone start a thread like, "What would you like to see in the next show?" there's always a bunch of replies with cast lists and/or how they'd set up the next version of the Great War. Without fail, these are generally the most common types of replies you'll see in threads like that.

Prior to Rescue Bots and the current peace-time IDW comics, I dare say most fans would find the idea of a Transformer show or comic *without* the backdrop of war to be ridiculous. Those examples are proof positive that this franchise can branch off in different directions without losing its identity.

I'm not talking about turning it into a sitcom or a courtroom drama or whatever. At its heart, Transformers has always been about science fiction, adventures and action. Action can take plenty of forms. I think everyone would agree that the action in an adventure movie like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a lot different than the action in a war movie like The Dirty Dozen or the action in a superhero movie like Batman or the action in a fantasy movie like Legend. You can have plenty of explosions and fighting without it being in the context of a global war.

Anyway, I'm just curious to see what people think about this. Have you noticed this trend yourself? Do you have trouble imagining Transformers as anything other than a never-ending cosmic war?

And if you were hired on by Hasbro to take the Transformers in a new direction, could you do it? Are you gonna crank out "Transformers: Rock Band like what WB once planned to do with ThunderCats? Or create a show for a different demographic like Rescue Bots did? A time travel show following Vector Prime as he helps people in different times?

[Shockwave]

I don't really think it has. I mean, even back in the glory days of G1, I remember having fun imagining what Cybertron was like during it's "Golden Age" before the war started. It was fun to imagine what day to day life was like there and how it would be similar or different to life here on Earth. It's one of the reasons why I do like the current comics so much. As for the next series, I would actually like to see one that focuses on events leading up to the war, which we've gotten in the comics, but I'd like to see that played out in some sort of series or movie.

[Sparky Prime]

I have noticed that Transformers has run the Autobot/Decepticon war into the ground, especially lately, with how refreshing it is for the IDW comics to be breaking away from that. But I can imagine Transformers doing something beyond the pattern of never ending war. To an extent, they have done some things beyond the war already. Beast Wars took place post-war, although granted the show was still primarily the battle between good and evil, but there was more to the show than that. The Maximals were supposed to be on an exploration mission after all and Megatron was just a renegade. I've always thought it would be interesting to see them expand more on that sort of exploration idea. A 'Transformers Trek' type of a show if you will. Maybe each season would take place on a different planet, giving them reasons to change alternative forms as they explore different worlds. Animated took a similar idea to Beast Wars, taking place post-war and making the Autobots just a repair crew with dreams of being more. And they become somewhat like Super Heroes to Earth (which honestly I didn't care for all that much) before the show eventually refocused on the Autobot/Decepticon conflict. The franchise certainly has room to expand into other areas beyond the constant war at any rate.

A time travel show following Vector Prime as he helps people in different times?

Striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home? Actually, that might be a cool idea.

[Mako Crab]

In regards to Beast Wars- even though it was the first true sequel to G1, the franchise had still existed for 12 years up to that point. Twelve years of reinforcing the pattern of Autobots and Decepticons transforming into vehicles (mostly). Suddenly we have Maximals and Predacons turning into animals and this slight change to the pattern resulted in lots of great rants in the form of "Trukk not Munky," and later, "Cyber-tron, not Fiber-tron" with Beast Machines. To this day some people still refuse to accept the show or even watch it due to its deviation from the norm. Usually, when I see these kinds of fans talk about why they dislike the Beast era, they cite the fact that they're animals first and foremost. The characters and writing may come up later, but more often than not, it's the beast modes they start out with.

I think that kind of adherence to the pattern could be a direct result of years worth of conditioning.

Granted, some people just don't like the Beast era and their dislike has nothing to do with the beast modes or other changes. For those people, the above does not apply.